This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu, Dhrithi, and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

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Friday, December 24, 2010

Badam Milk and Potato Buns are specialties of all the Iyengar Bakeries in town. It was the ultimate combo which people relished after office hours or after an evening show at the local theater. People even treated friends at the bakery to celebrate a promotion at their office or to announce the birth of a baby. This was old Mysore.

Even after the advent of Pizza Houses and Food Courts at malls, a treat of Badam Milk and Potato Buns at the Bakeries still has its own charm. Badam Milk has always been and is a 'hot' favourite of many connoisseurs. My husband always playfully refers to the delicious drink as 'Hot Badam Cold'!

INGREDIENTS

Milk - 1/2 lit

Almonds - 30

Sugar - 4 tbsps

Saffron strands - a few

cardamom - 2

Pacha karpoora - 1 pin head ( edible camphor)

METHOD

1. Soak almonds in boiling water for half an hour.

2. Remove the skin and grind the almonds with little milk into a slightly coarse paste.

3 .Boil the milk and stir in the almond paste and continue to boil for a few more minutes.

4. Add sugar and switch off flame.

5. Add saffron strands, powdered cardamom and pachekarpoora.

Badam Kheer can be relished hot or cold.

CARROT PAYASAM

Payasam using various vegetables is in today. Carrot payasam is my family's favourite.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

My memories go back to my younger days when we siblings decorated a tall and sturdy TULASI ( Sacred Basil ) plant like a Christmas Tree. We used all the trinkets and silver papers we had collected, to decorate the' tree'. We even had a crib, with a doll swaddled and placed in a basket filled with hay and cotton.We sang the Christmas songs we had learnt at school.Father was real life Santa to us. He usually bought us the best of cakes and other Christmas goodies from Nilgiris, and the surprise gifts as well. It was a ritual to gift a huge Christmas cake to our school and we received another cake in return with best wishes from our Mother Superior.Much later, my children celebrated Christmas with their friends with the same spirit as we did. Our gardener dug out a pit in the garden and started a camp fire with the dry wood collected from our garden. The children tossed potatoes wrapped in foil into the camp fire and were thrilled with the grilled vegetable. They roasted corn cobs in the camp fire and painted them with a chilly salt and lemon paste for a spicy snack. Dinner was mainly South Indian followed by cakes and ice creams for dessert.And now my grand children continue the tradition which we had started decades ago. A potted Christmas Tree stands five feet tall on their terrace.They even have a make shift arrangement - a metal bucket - for a camp fire on their terrace garden.A Christmas celebration is not complete without the delicious Christmas goodies shared among the near and dear ones.Here are the recipes for a few goodies to bring in the Christmas spirit.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

ROSE PUDDINGFOR A MERRY CHRISTMASAfter so many years of cooking you tend to forget what you cooked, when you cooked or for whom you cooked, unless some one reminds you of the same. I was greatly touched when Little Sonny fondly remembered one of my dishes he had relished in his younger days ( 'bread soaked in rose milk' as he put it),while speaking on a long distance call.Rose Pudding! That was it! It was one of the home made desserts my children enjoyed after a hard days work at school. Impelled by nostalgia I once again prepared this pudding for the Christmas post.

1. Heat butter and roast the bread pieces till they become golden in colour.

2. Toast the three whole slices of bread with little more butter and keep them aside.3. Mix rose syrup and cool milk together to make rose milk, adding sugar if needed.4. Soak the fried bread pieces in the rose milk.

1. Whisk custard powder, sugar and 1 cup of milk together.2. Heat the remaining milk with butter.3. When the milk starts to boil blend in the custard powder sugar milk mixture, stirring all the time to avoid lumps.4. When the custard powder gets cooked and the custard beomes shiny switch off the flame.5. Whisk together rose syrup and custard when it starts cooling.

1. Grease a bowl with butter and spread a layer of bread pieces soaked in rose milk.2. Sprinkle a layer of raisins on top of the bread layer.3. Spread one more layer of bread and top it with cherries.4. Cover with another layer of rose milk bread.5. Pour half of the custard over the last layer.6. Dip the toasted bread slices in custard and arrange in such a way that the entire surface of the pudding is covered. This layer will help to hold the pudding together when it is turned over.

7. Spread the remaining custard evenly on the bread slice layer and chill the pudding covered, preferably over night.

8. Cover the mouth of the bowl with a flat plate and turn it over to release the pudding.

9. Gently remove the bowl.

10. Top with blanched almonds and blobs of gulkhand.

ROSE SAUCE

Beat two table spoons of rose syrup with 2 cups of condensed milk and enjoy the rose sauce with sliced Rose Pudding.

Monday, December 20, 2010

The moment we decided to post recipes for CHRISTMAS, our whole family was abuzz with excitement. Think tanks were activated and switched on to memory mode. My sister Yosee reminded me of the Yule Log our mother had once prepared for Christmas.

Candle making, cake making and many other classes were held at the Inner Wheel Club where the members shared their skills with each other apart from their busy social service schedules.

Mother had learnt the art of making eggless cookies, cakes and puddings in one such session. She once made Yule Log using Marie biscuits, for Christmas. It was great fun helping around with the decorations as we secretly licked ( OOOOH! TABOOOO! ) our sugar and butter coated fingers! We enjoyed the log pudding/cake as much as we enjoyed the plum cake father had bought from NILGIRIS.

I called up my mother for a quick 'Yule Log making' lesson and prepared it for the first time, and this is how it turned out to be.

My daughter and grand daughter helped me with the decorations. I really love the cute little fledglings sitting on the log, which was modelled by my grand daughter using home made marzipan.

INGREDIENTS

Marie biscuits - 2 packets

Cocoa powder - 4 tbsps

Milk - enough to make the dough

Butter - 300 gms

Powdered sugar - 4 cups

Tuttifruity - 6tbsps

Raisins - 6 tbsps

Cashew nuts - 6 tbsps

Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp

Ready to use chocolate - 1 slab

METHOD

1. Break the biscuits into tiny bits and powder in a mixer.

2. Mix cocoa into the biscuit powder.

3. Sprinkle milk little by little and knead the biscuit powder and cocoa into a smooth dough.

I have always wanted to make ‘hotel style’ navaratan kurma,or at least like the MTR ready to eat one! I looked up a number of recipes, and finally landed up making Vah Chef’s recipe, minus shahi jeera (I used just normal jeera) and pomegranate (This would have been toooo fruity for my taste – especially for a curry dish!)!! It’s truely a very very delicious dish! I made around 8 serves, and wish I had made LOTS more! Here is how I made it.

Navratan means 9 gems, and are represented in this dish by the 9 main ingredients; however, I landed up with 10 instead, as you can see!

You will need 1 tbsp oil to fry the paneer , and 1tsp ghee to fry the nuts

INGREDIENTS FOR THE GRAVY

Oil – 3.5 Tbsp

Cardamom – 4

Cloves – 6

Cinnamon – 1 inch piece

Jeera (Cumin seeds) – ½ tsp

Bay Leaf – 2

Chopped Green Chillies – 1 tsp (more if you want more heat!)

Onion – one large

Cashew nuts – 2

Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 tsp

Jeera (Cumin) Powder – 1tsp

Dhania (Corriander) Powder – 1.5 tsp

Pepper Powder – ½ tsp (more if you want more heat!)

Salt – 1.5 tsp (or to taste)

Fresh Cream – ½ cup

Fresh chopped Corriander – for garnish

METHOD

Prepare the nine gems first!

1. Semi boil all the vegetables. I have this lovely Tupperware microwave steamer presented by my aunt! I steamed potatos, beans and carrots for 8 minutes. Then I added the cauliflower, and frozen peas, and steamed again for 4 minutes (microwave on high power)

2. Dice paneer, and deep fry in oil till its starts turning pale brown in patches. Drain well and remove into a bowl of warm water. This removes excess oil and makes the paneer softt.

NOW FOR THE GRAVY!5. Boil onion and cashew nuts in water until cashew is soft, and onions are translucent. Drain them and grind to a smooth paste in a mixer. Don’t discard the water if any remaining, as it is full of flavour and can be used later in the gravy.

6. Heat oil, and add cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, jeera seeds and bay leaf. When they splutter add green chillies and the onion cashew paste. Keep stirring on a low flame. Its best to use a non stick pan, and cook the entire dish on a low flame, as the cashew burns very easily! I had to rescue my dish two times by changing vessels, as the gravy started sticking to the bottom of the dish!

7. Add the jeera, dhania and pepper powder, and continue frying. The mixture will turn dry and colour changed to a pale brown. The mixture should smell cooked! Now add a little water. You can add what you may have preserved from boiling the onion and cashews.

8. Add the vegetables and salt and let the whole mixture cook, until the vegetables are well cooked.

9. Add fresh cream, nuts, raisins and pineapple. Stir well and switch off the flame after a few seconds.

Vegetarian Menu Recommendationsfor a Tasty Christmas!
It is Christmas fever all around here in Sydney, at the malls, on TV, everywhere! Even hose pipes are being sold under chirstmas branding!! All the cookery shows on air are busy demo-ing dishes for Christmas! A vegetarian Christmas is not so uncommon these days, with lots of folks giving up meat and poultry! I found some sites featuring vegan x’mas menus. Sadly they were not very appetising ...to me – a very very hard core vegetarian (but not vegan!) Most sites featured lots of tofu, soya, mushrooms, and other “imitation meat”, besides some boiled vegetables!

I began thinking Vegetarian Indian Christmas Food, and then South Indian Vegetarian Christmas .... ummm that’s really very tough! What did my dear friends eat for Christmas? What did they prepare for us vegetarians? I slowly started remembering ...Rose cookies, Plum cake, Ginger Wine (non-alcoholic), masala tea, casseroles, bread rolls, cup cakes, tarts, dodol, sannas, aapam and stew....

I requested Chitra Amma to talk to some of our South Indian Christian friends to find out what food they would prepare for a Vegetarian spread, and asked my zillion friends on Facebook as well. We landed up with great suggestions and a number of dishes ... ranging from biriyanis to puddings, salads to mughlai dishes! Well many dishes are not really of South Indian origin, but have been prepared by South Indian Christians for a long long !

Here are recommendations from us for a delicious vegetarian spread. We've linked the recipes to most items, and will be adding more suggestions and links in the coming days.

If you want a grand menu, pick at least one item from each of the categories, and as many vegetables and salads, sweets and dessert as you want!! If you want a simpler menu – pick either soup or drink, one main dish, one vegetable, one salad or raita, and either the dessert or a sweet!

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Hello

Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

Thank you for your visit, and we hope you enjoy your stay at Chitra Amma’s Kitchen.